(June 1994)

Labour’s success and the defeat of the BNP in last month’s
local elections gave socialists a real cause for celebration. Chris
Bambery looks at the results and beyond to the possibility of
future struggles

There was one man unhappier than John Major on the night of May’s
local elections – Derek Beackon, the defeated British National
Party candidate on east London’s Isle of Dogs.

Britain’s Nazis cut a sorry figure amongst their European blood
brothers. Today, 50 years after Auschwitz, the MSI – heirs of the
fascist Mussolini – are in government in Italy. In France the Nazi
National Front has over 1,000 local representatives to the BNP’s none.

The Independent was quick to claim the BNP’s defeat in
the Isle of Dogs was a tribute to the resilience of Britain’s
democratic tradition. In reality it was a tribute to months of hard
campaigning by the Anti Nazi League in Millwall. While many of the
left was prepared to accept the notion that the Isle of Dogs was a no
go area for anti-racists, the ANL went out week after week on the
Island’s estates and to its workplaces.

While Beackon claimed that he got the white working class vote,
the truth is that Labour would have won even if not a single black
voter on the Island had voted. On election day the Island had
something of a carnival atmosphere as white and black voters showed
their contempt for the BNP.

The inability of Britain’s Nazis to copy the success of their
European counterparts is not just a result of the ANL’s success
this time round, but the legacy of its success in the late 1970s.
Then the National Front could contest every seat in the 1977 Greater
London Council elections while it could poll 44 percent in a council
by-election in Deptford in 1976. This year the fascists scraped a
miserable 3 percent in the same area.

Ray Hill, who was a mole within Britain’s Nazis for the
anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, has recorded:

‘After its first flush of success, the NF was knocked
back by the hugely successful campaigns of the Anti Nazi League which
organised rallies of tens of thousands against the NF, and produced
millions of highly effective leaflets which circulated in factories,
offices and housing estates.’

The effect of that can be seen in parts of London which the Nazis
regarded as ‘theirs’ in the late 1970s: areas like Hoxton in
south Hackney where the BNP does not openly appear. It can be seen in
other ways. The argument about denying the Nazis a platform was
bitterly attacked by Labour leaders like Michael Foot in the 1970s.
Today this position has been more widely accepted, with Media Workers
Against the Nazis drawing large scale support.

In the 1970s the Anti Nazi League operated against the background
of a Labour government which achieved things like a real reduction in
wages and health expenditure that neither Margaret Thatcher or John
Major has emulated. Whilst the League involved individual Labour MPs
and party supporters it was clearly independent of Labour and
critical of the right wing Callaghan government.

This contrasts with the record of an organisation like SOS
Racisme in France during the 1980s. On the surface its concerts
and festivals echoed the ANL Carnivals of the late 1970s. However,
not only did it shy clear of directly confronting Le Pen but it was
closely linked to the increasingly right wing Socialist government.

Yet it would be too easy to see Beackon’s defeat as the end of
the matter. The election results give no such room for complacency.
In south Newham the BNP could poll 32.9 and 24.1 percent of the vote
in Beckton and Custom House and Beackon’s own vote increased from
the by-election. The BNP’s vote in Millwall stood at 28 percent
while in nearby Globetown it polled 22.8 percent. Outside east London
the BNP could poll nothing of this size. But the rise of the European
Nazis still gives confidence to British fascists even if their
electoral showing is pathetic in most places.

Here it is important that we draw the lessons of Millwall. Over
the months local socialists built up support so that local
firefighters, civil servants and health workers leafleted against the
Nazis. The BNP tried to claim we were outsiders – though Beackon
himself does not live on the Island. The involvement of local workers
went a long way to undercutting this idea.

Success also meant going beyond simply exposing the BNP as Nazis
to addressing issues such as housing, the closure of a local
community centre, VAT on fuel and local health cuts. The Nazis had
nothing to offer over anything that smelt of a fightback against the
system. When the BNP leafleted houses with the ‘Island
Nationalist’, the local SWP branch hit back with ‘Island
Socialist’. Where the BNP had built up networks of local supporters
we toured door to door building up a network of Socialist Worker readers.

Labour has promised new houses for thousands of local people. Now
that it runs the council the danger is that Labour will repeat its
past performances and fail to meet that pledge. Socialists need to
channel any resulting anger in the right direction by building a
fightback. Otherwise the Nazis can cash in.

The fight against the Nazis is not divorced from the wider
fightback against the Tories. The turnout at the ANL Carnival from
trade unionists can breed confidence not only to fight racism but to
fight on a wider level over jobs and wages. That has been true with
workplace anti-Nazi groups, which have registered some of their most
impressive support in the post and fire services – groups noted for
recent high levels of industrial militancy.

On the doorstep it is often difficult to break down the views of
isolated, bitter individuals who can become prey to the fascists. Yet
there is not a workplace or union branch in the country where it is
impossible to get a hearing for an anti-racist message. Across the
country groups of often mainly white trade unionists voted support
for the Carnival in the collective solidarity of the workplace.

In the long run whether racism will increase will largely depend
on the level of working class struggle in this country. In the Royal
Mail the recent spate of disputes has brought black and white
together. Here we should always remind ourselves of one simple fact,
John Major is a walking corpse. Everything he touches turns to ashes.
In the words of his arch critic, Richard Littlejohn of the Sun,
he is a ‘hopeless, lying, incompetent, hypocrite’. It was almost
beyond belief that the anniversary of the D Day invasion could turn
into a fiasco for the Tories with even Vera Lynn turning on them.
This follows the back to basics fiasco as Tory sex scandals wrecked
Major’s claims that the Tories were the party defending moral
standards.

Past Nazi Votes

The following figures put the Nazi vote into perspective.
The Nazis are not able to do what the NF did in 1977 when they
contested every London seat in the GLC elections. Neither are
they able to achieve what they did in a Deptford by-election in
1976 when they polled 44 percent.

But for the political interlude caused by John Smith’s death, it
is questionable whether he would once again have been on the ropes
following the Tories’ disastrous performance in May’s local
elections. Already an unofficial leadership election was under way
with Michael Portillo and Kenneth Clarke as well as Michael Heseltine
throwing their hats into the ring. The local elections left Britain’s
ruling party in third place at town hall level in England and Wales
while in Scotland it is reduced to fourth place.

While the media claimed the main victor of the elections was Paddy
Ashdown’s Liberal Democrats, in reality the Labour Party was the
chief prizewinner. Labour matched its success of 1990 at the time of
the poll tax when Labour was extremely popular, while inside London
it increased its vote, winning Croydon, for the first time in its
history, Enfield and Ealing from the Tories and Tower Hamlets from
the Liberals. The Tory Party now controls only four out of the 32
London boroughs, while the Liberals lost around 30 seats in London
overall, including on the other council it controlled, Richmond.

Labour’s success was tempered by losses in Sheffield, Lambeth,
Southwark, Islington and Kirklees where there was a reaction to the
right wing policies of the Labour councils. In many of these areas
Labour also felt the loss of activists removed as a result of the
purge of the left. Yet in places such as Hackney, Haringey and Camden
Labour gained despite its record in the town hall.

The genuine grief at John Smith’s death reflected the widespread
hope for a Labour victory. Yet that grief has been tempered by
concern about the media packaged campaign to install Tony Blair as
the new Labour leader.

Rupert Murdoch’s Sun has been in many ways the most
biting critic of John Major. The paper’s columnist, Richard
Littlejohn, says, ‘What is wrong with British politics is that
there is little to choose between the two main parties.’ Littlejohn
backs Blair because he wants to see a realignment of British
politics, with a pro-European Labour Party and an anti-European Tory
Party. His position reflects the confusion and deep divisions on
Europe within the Tories’ ranks.

But Blair has little to offer those worried about their jobs,
their housing or racist attacks. Neither will they have experienced
the political truce of the kind observed at Westminster after Smith’s
death. They are still facing redundancy and increased taxes. The
hypocrisy of all this is staggering. The Tories’ Euro election
guide, written before Smith’s death, described his performance as
‘ineffectual and visionless’ with his ‘double standards’
making ‘Neil Kinnock look like a first class leader’.

Despite all of this the Tories seem set for a further humiliation
in the Euro elections which will reopen the gaping wounds in their
front ranks. Beyond all this there are signs of wider concerns among
Britain’s rulers. Prince Charles dropped his liberal facade when he
made a speech echoing an earlier statement by Michael Portillo when
he claimed:

‘We tend to be subjected to the most all-pervading
cynicism about almost every aspect of our national life. Nothing ever
seems right ...

‘An insidious impression is thereby created that, for
instance, the police are corrupt, British justice is flawed, the BBC
is moribund and public servants are time wasters of taxpayers’
money’.

This cynicism no doubt got a boost when it was revealed taxpayers
were forking out £3,000 a week to cover Princess Diana’s bill for
clothes, beauty treatment and Chinese foot massage!

Yet there are those on the left who still urge caution. The trade
union leaders are falling over themselves to avoid any talk about
action and to conform with every tightening of the anti-union laws.
Even the left wing New Statesman writes:

‘Yet, even now, the signs are that there is nothing
about the Conservatives’ position that could not be remedied by the
smack of firm (and different) leadership in combination with real
economic recovery’.

Any visitor to the union conferences this spring would have left
with the idea that new realism reigned supreme. In the new, super
public sector union, Unison, the conference voted down even balloting
for a day’s strike over pay, with the union’s general secretary
Alan Jinkinson, claiming such a ballot ‘would give comfort to the
most unpopular prime minister this century’. The TUC went so far as
suppressing a poll showing majority support for strike action over
public sector pay.

The effects of more than a decade dominated by defeat and
demoralisation go beyond the top tables of union officials. The
legacy has left its scars among the rank and file. Yet there are
signs that the Tory travails can only feed what is growing discontent
at grass roots level in the working class. In recent months there
have been a blaze of walkouts across Royal Mail in response to
management’s arrogance. This has happened despite the postal union,
the UCW’s, desperation to dissociate itself from much of this
action. In Liverpool an illegal city wide strike spread from the main
sorting office after a manager mocked a postal worker’s stutter. A
mass meeting voted down the union’s secretary, Alan Johnson, in
favour of continuing the action. Johnson only forced a return to work
through a reps’ meeting at which he threatened to remove their
union credentials.

In the fire service there has been a series of protests and
ballots in response to attacks on conditions. In Glasgow a dispute at
the Royal Infirmary made headline news north of the border after
porters and cleaners voted to strike against privatisation. NHS trust
management threatened, in the words of the city’s Evening Times
headline, to ‘bring on the scabs’ and was then forced into a
humiliating victory. In Bedford engineering workers registered a
‘score draw’ after a strike while 700 mainly women workers at
Elkes Biscuits in Uttoxeter won a pay increase after ten days on strike.

This is occurring even before the effects of Tory tax increases
make themselves felt on workers’ pay packets. With most workers £5
worse off already and with more to follow, it is difficult to see
such a weak and divided government holding the line on pay in the
long run.

Neither do we face a confident management as we did in the early
1980s with Michael Edwardes at what is now Rover, and Ian MacGregor
at first British Steel and then British Coal. Individuals like John
Birt at the BBC, Iain Vallance at BT or the new breed of NHS trust
managers are hated figures.

Most people can be forgiven for knowing little of this. It is not
reported outside the pages of Socialist Worker. Papers such as
the Financial Times, which once seriously monitored industrial
relations, now rarely cover industrial disputes. The union leaders do
little to publicise resistance.

Socialists cannot affect the level of struggle by an act of will.
They can address the doubts which remain in workers’ heads while
boosting the desire for a fightback. Where there is a socialist
presence it can ensure that the trade union officials don’t stifle action.

Last year that was true at Timex where there was a group of long
term Socialist Worker readers. This year that has been true at
Glasgow Royal Infirmary (where a regular sale mushroomed to over 100
in the week of the dispute) and at Liverpool’s main sorting office.

One simple task we can all set ourselves is to ensure that such
workplace sales happen in every part of the country.

At present the situation is one where industrial disputes bubble
up but never quite come to the boil. The legacy of years of defeat
means that the anger in people’s minds is still mixed with a lack
of confidence about how to fight.

But we only have to look across the Channel to France to see how
quickly mass strikes and protests can develop. It is only a matter of
time before the explosions which are recent features of continental
Europe also happen here.